About us
Bremont is an award-winning British company producing beautifully engineered chronometers at our Headquarters in Henley on Thames, England.
Time began for Bremont when we embarked on a journey to make beautifully crafted pilot’s watches of exceptional quality. Flying historic aircraft has been in our blood from an early age, as has our love for watches and all things mechanical. The timepieces had to be tested beyond any normal call of duty (and not just in the workshop), and of course be immensely precise and durable. We make our watches to a very high specification for the price point and every watch in our standard range is Chronometer certified. We stand by our product and are one of the few companies offering a 3 year warranty on every watch we produce. We hope you get the same satisfaction as us when you try on a Bremont.
Nick and Giles English
Bremont Watch Company was founded in 2002 but did not launch its collection of highly developed aviation inspired timepieces until 2007 after 5 years in development.
The Story
Founded by two British brothers, Nick and Giles English, Bremont originated from the brothers joint lifetime love and passion for engineering and aviation.
They inherited their love of watches, clocks and all things mechanical from an early age as they grew up in the workshop with their talented engineering father, Dr Euan English, a PHD student of Aeronautical Engineering from Cambridge. As an ex RAF pilot Euan also taught the brothers to fly and was active in the historic aircraft industry both flying and restoring historic aircraft.
All changed on the 4th March 1995 as Nick and Euan were training for an air-show in their WWII Harvard. Whilst practicing formation aerobatics they got stuck in an inverted spin from which they failed to recover and their aircraft was involved in a horrendous accident. Euan died and Nick broke over 30 bones. This accident was a tipping-point in the brothers’ lives and provided the impetus to follow their passion for watches.
After the accident Nick and Giles ran the family aviation business but in 2002 set about forming a watch company. Seeing themselves as very much a British company they knew that they needed the current experience of the Swiss and set up an atelier in Bein, Switzerland. The aim was clear, they wanted to bring some of their engineering experience to create classical aviation inspired watches that could be used in the boardroom or up Mount Everest. With no interest in quartz watches the brothers only wanted to make very high quality watches with the finest mechanical movements that could be found in their price point.
The Name Bremont
In the late 1990s, Giles and Nick were flying down through France in their 1930s bi-plane when they were forced to make an emergency landing due to a rough-running engine. The weather was also closing in.
Keen to avoid the French authorities, the brothers were more than happy to accept the gracious help from the old farmer whose field they had landed in. The aircraft was pushed by Nick and Giles into his barn where it stayed for the night as the weather cleared. The brothers also stayed the night with the farmer and were delighted to be shown his workshop and hear all of his flying tales. He too had flown aircraft (during the war) and was also a gifted engineer. Old wall clocks lay around the place in mid restoration together with numerous engine parts. The farmer still wore his own father’s wristwatch, and the farmer’s name… Antoine Bremont.
A British Company
There is an incredible and illustrious history of British watch-making travelling back over the past centuries. This enviable list of past pioneering horologists includes the like of Harrison, Mudge, Graham, Arnold and Tompion, and, of course, more recent leading lights likes George Daniels.
At Bremont, we assemble and manufacture as much as we can in Britain. Our B-1 Marine Clock is completely designed and manufactured in the UK (down to the smallest screw and gear). A large proportion of our watches are now assembled and parts finished in the UK, with all assembly planned to be in the UK by autumn 2012, and Bremont’s design team is based in the UK. Every watch is delivered in a British hand-made leather watch wallet or roll, and some models arrive accompanied by a NATO styled nylon strap – again made in the UK.
Bremont is very proud to be at the centre of this British revival in watch-making and equally excited to be working in partnership with some great British manufacturing companies like Jaguar and Martin-Baker.
Bremont HQ
Bremont is pleased to announce the launch of their new British watch making facility in Henley on Thames, South Oxfordshire. The beautiful oak framed building in the heart of the Chiltern Valley has been custom built to provide an ideal facility for the manufacture of their high-end mechanical watches.
Bremont is on a long term staged investment program to develop mechanical watch manufacturing expertise in the UK and will be assembling and finishing off key movement and case components in Henley. Bremont continue to build and promote their British heritage. With the successful opening of their Mayfair store last July, the new British based headquarters reinforces the ethos of the brand and marks an exciting future for British watchmaking.
